A Hideous Past As Prologue? How The Nuremberg Trials Helped Shape Modern Medical Ethics

Audio: Daniel Goldberg speaks with Ryan Warner

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials. The famous military tribunal is perhaps best known as the prosecution of almost two dozen Nazi officers for their participation in war crimes committed during World War II. However, during those trials, a far lesser-known case was also taking place -- 23 doctors were charged with conducting experiments on prisoners without consent, many at concentration camps.

The aftermath of the trials led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code, which provides a set of ethics to be followed when conducting human experimentation. According to Daniel Goldberg, an associate professor at the University of Colorado's Anschutz School of Medicine, the code is regarded as the blueprint for the research guidelines used today.